Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/373

 ELEGIES AND EPIGRAMS

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��C;elestive animas saturantera rore tenellas,

Grande salutiferse religionis opus. Utque solet, multam sit dicere cura salu- tem,

Dicere quam decuit, si modo adesset,

herum.

Hsec quoque, paulum oculos in hnmum defixa modestos,

Verba verecundo sis memor ore loqui: 50 " Ha3c tibi, si teneris vacat inter prselia Musis,

Mittit ab Angliaco littore fida manus. Accipe sinceram, quamvis sit sera, salutem;

Fiat et hoc ipso gratior ilia tibi. Sera quidem, sed vera fuit, quam casta re- cepit

Icaris a lento Penelopeia viro. Ast ego quid volui mauifestuni tollere cri- men,

Ipse quod ex omni parte levare nequit ? Arguitur tardus meritb, noxamque fatetur,

Et pudet ofBciura deseruisse suum. 60 Tu mod& da veniani fasso, veniamque ro- ganti ;

Crimina diminui qure patuere solent. Non ferus in pavidos rictus diducit hiantes,

Vulnifico pronos nee rapit ungue leo. Saepe sarissiferi crudelia pectora Thracis

Supplicis ad mcestas delicuere preces; Extenszeque manus avertunt fulminis ictus,

Placat et iratos hostia parva Decs. Jamque din scripsisse tibi fuit impetus illi,

Xeve moras ultra ducere passus Amor; Nam vaga Fania refert, heu uuntia vera malorum ! 71

In tibi finitimis bella tumere locis, Teque tuamque urbem truculento milite cingi,

Et jam Saxonicos arma parasse duces. Te circum late campos populatur Enyo,

Et sata carne virum jam cruor arva

rigat.

Germanisque suum concessit Thracia Mar- tem;

Illnc Odrysios Mars pater egit equos; Perpetu6que comans jam deflorescit oliva;

Fugit et serisonam Diva perosa tubam, So Fugit, io ! terris, et jam non ultima Virgo

Creditur ad superas justa volasse domos. Te tamen interea belli circumsonat horror,

Vivis et ignoto solus inobsque solo; Et, tibi quam patrii non exhibuere penates,

Sede peregrina quseris egenus opem. Patria, dura parens, et saxis ssevior albis

Spumea quse pulsat littoris unda tui,

��the true God; or as he sprinkles with hea- venly dew the souls not yet grown strong in faith, great work of healing religion. Take care to give him fair greeting, as is wont, and to say what it would beseem your master to say if he were there. Re- member, fixing your modest eyes a while on the ground, to speak these words, shyly: " These verses if there is time in the midst of battles for the gentle Muses a faithful hand sends thee from the Eng- lish shore. Accept his greeting, late though it be. Aye, let it come all the welcomer for that. Late indeed, but true, was that greet- ing which chaste Penelope, daughter of Icarius, received from her tardy husband . But why should I seek to extenuate a fault which my master would be the last to deny ? Justly he is proved dilatory, and confesses the wrong ; he is ashamed to have put off the performance of such a duty. Grant grace to a sinner confessed, a sinner plead- ing. Wrongs revealed lose half their weight. The wild beast does not turn his yawning jaws against a trembling victim ; the lion will not wound with his claw those who lie prone. The cruel hearts of pike- bearing Thracians have often melted at the mournful cry of a suppliant; hands stretched out in appeal avert the lightning-stroke, and a little offering placates the anger of Gods.

" For a long time now he has been moved to write thee, and now at last Love would not suffer more delay; for vague Rumor alas, true messenger of ill ! says that thy neighborhood is big with wars, that thou and thy city are girt about with truculent soldiery, and that the Saxon chiefs are al- ready in arms. About thee far and wide Enyo the war goddess lays waste the fields, and blood stiffens the ground sown with the bodies of men. Mars deserts Thrace for Germany, and thither drives his Odrysian horses. The olive, always green, now with- ers; and Peace, who hates the trumpet's brazen clang, flees now from earth to hea- ven, whither, alas ! more virgins must follow her. Meanwhile about thee sounds the horror of war, where thou livest alone and poor in a strange land. Thou must needs seek in foreign parts the sustenance which thy fatherland denies thee. Fatherland, stern parent, harsher than the white rocks beaten by the foam of your shore, does it

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